Interesting potential use of glycerol to power marine engines

[Tony]

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/GLEAMS-Glycerol-Fuel-Project-Interest-1868300.S.277488036

allowing vessels to burn a widely available but under-used fuel, glycerol (glycerine), in conventional marine diesel engines, requiring only modest additional equipment that can be easily retro-fitted. See: http://www.aquafuelresearch.com/uploads/9/7/3/7/973719/emissionimpossible.pdf

[therecklessengineer]

Hmmmm....highly doubtful it'll come off I'd say.

Certainly possible to run an engine on glycerol given the right pre-treatment, but I can't see it being taken up in the marine world.

Stationary power/heat production perhaps.

[julianf]

I was looking at this one a while back -

http://www.rina.org.uk/article1326.html

[julesandtash]

Hmmmm....highly doubtful it'll come off I'd say.

Certainly possible to run an engine on glycerol given the right pre-treatment, but I can't see it being taken up in the marine world.

Stationary power/heat production perhaps.

Glycerol doesn't seem that far removed from HFO in many of it's properties

[therecklessengineer]

Yes, you're quite right.

However, just getting an engine to run on the stuff is the easy bit.

Supplying it to a vessel would be the difficulty. As there's no precedent for using it, there's no supply chain so no way to get it to a vessel.

Perhaps if you were running a vessel that frequently calls at the same port (ferry for example) then you might invest in the infrastructure required. But then you are tied to that port - should trade routes change and your vessel goes somewhere else then you've lost what you've spent on the infrastructure.

There are actually some interesting things going on at the moment with 'cold ironing' and hybrid diesel/electric/battery powered vessels with regards to this supply chain problem. Particularly in Scandinavia. Worth a Google if you're interested.